Elephant man from China

A Team of surgeons spent nearly eight hours Monday removing more than 20 tumors from the face of a 22-year-old man from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The doctors from Shanghai No. 9 People's Hospital said this should be the last round of surgery needed for Ou Guifeng, who was previously known as the "elephant man" in his hometown due to his massive facial tumors.

Seven doctors took part in the surgery, which started at 8:30 AM and ran well into the afternoon. They took turns cutting massive neural fiber tumors off Ou's forehead, cheeks, nose and jaw.

"It was a success," said chief surgeon Li Qingfeng, adding that the biggest challenge for the doctors was to prevent massive hemorrhaging and avoid hurting any of the neural networks inside the tumors.

Ou developed a small bulge in the left side of his cheek at the age of two. As the size and number of tumors on his face increased, he was left nearly blind in his right eye.

Doctors said that the massive tumors were caused by a genetic disease and could only be treated with surgery.

Last May, Chinese-American painter Gao Jianwu heard about Ou's miserable life during a trip to Guangxi. He raised money from overseas Chinese to pay for Ou's medical treatment.

Ou first underwent surgery at the People's Hospital of Guilin in Guangxi on June 29. That operation had to be halted, however, due to massive hemorrhaging.

Shanghai No. 9 People's Hospital prepared 4,000 milliliters of blood for yesterday's surgery to avoid similar problems. They only used about 1,000 milliliters.

Doctors said they were able to lift Ou's right eye into the proper position without damaging his optic nerve, so they are optimistic he will regain his eyesight.

(Shanghai Daily December 12, 2006))
~ may god give him strength

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• elephant
• man
• Guangxi
• Zhuang
• Ou
• Guifeng
• tumor

[pguyflykid]

poor man i wish i could help him

[diannemaryb]

The 'exploitation' of this gentleman, Huang Chuncai, seems wrong but hopefully will make people accept more readily people who do have conditions like this. It is a shame he wasn't helped earlier in his life. Poverty is a terrible thing and so is 'poverty of mind' that makes people stare and ridicule people like Huang.

[skaterobban]

imagine being nicknamed elephant man...

[faithrada]

Dear Vlexo, what IF... someone prayed for a Dr. to come and help? I KNOW prayer is powerful.... it is our own divine will connecting to Universal Consciousness. You might want to explore deeper and discover what Prayer is and how it actually works, what the MIND is, and how it works. BTW , one can move BEYOND religion and connect with their own sacred Power WITHIN, which is the same in all. We are all connected to the same Higher SELF. Compassion helps connect us more deeply.

[stephenharperbest2]

is there an update on how he looks now

[smpraxedes1]

Seems like the mom was embittered at the fact that the poor guy could not work to "support us in our old age". Hmmm, if you look closely at the mom, she has small tumors all over HER face. She has the same condition and luckily for her, HER tumors NEVER got to the stage her son's did. Neurofibroma IS hereditary, so the mother should spite herself and not her son. She is the one who passed the awful tumors to her son. I am pretty sure that the doc's who helped her son told her of her tumors.

[carnaxxxxx574]

i wish i could help him

[ForeverFading212]

wait, so what's wrong with him? Does he have a lot of extra skin or something? I'm from China and this is really surprising!

[jim74017]

jaba the hut!

[cone424]

omg! lol thats looked so wierd when hes talking boba fet lol.

[LolMomoBobo]

OMG he looks like boba fet

NO KIDDING!